New York Stories

12:00 AM
Roberta W. P. F
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III.

THAT ONE TIME I
MET THE LOVE OF MY LIFE IN THE SUBWAY AND LET IT GO…

For some reason,
New York City seems to be a great place for peculiar anecdotes to be born. It’s
just so unexpected you know? There’s so much life everywhere and so many people,
that anything can happen. And so it did.

It was Wednesday
and I was with a couple of friends at Brooklyn to meet a fashion designer at
the premises of her Studio next to the Hudson River.

After grabbing
lunch, we decided it was time to go back to Manhattan and spend the rest of the
day walking around Midtown. All we had to do, was take back the subway.

Once
we got to the station and were about to hop on the train a voice announced
through the speakers that there would be no more trains to Manhattan until
further notice because of some mechanical failure.

WHAT? Our hearts sank to our stomach in despair. Everyone at the station
seemed furious, however, we were just frustrated because we did not want to lose
one day at the city and couldn’t figure out what to do about it. While my
friends asked around if anyone had heard any news that could give us any hope
of leaving Brooklyn soon, someone tapped my shoulder. I turned around to face a
very handsome young man with a bright smile on his face who asked me, a little
embarrassed, in spanish, if I knew what was going on. His face looked familiar,
I knew that I had seen him before. Yeah, when we had just arrived at the
station. We had exchanged glances and a friendly smile but both of us had
followed separate ways. Well, there we were.. “No, sorry, I don’t know when
will be able to get to Manhattan” I answered politely. “Oh well, I’ll guess
we’ll have to wait”… And so we did.

We
chatted quite a bit, about our countries, as he was from Madrid but said to
love Mexico City, and had a blast in doing so. He
even introduced me to his grandma, a cute old french Mrs. who he had brought to
New York to celebrate her birthday. After a few laughs and
things in common, like his love for traveling, good food and ability to speak
fluent German (COME ON! WHAT A CATCH!) It was FINALLY time to board the train.

We hopped inside
and remained close, OBVIOUSLY because of how packed the subway was (yeah
right). My friends, who had already seen what a connection your girl had made
(and how into it he was according to one of them) continued to play along. Suddenly,
(too soon if you ask me) it was time to hop out, but instead of coming with us,
this red polo + James-dean-jaw-line persona together with his adorable grandma
were to hop out at the next station. We said our goodbyes, her Grammy even gave
me a kiss and told me how nice it was to have met such a pretty girl, and when
I was about to step down it even looked as if he was about to tell me
something, but then people started rushing down and the slow-mo sequence
started to catch up to Manhattan speed, which means that from a moment to the
other I was practically forced down the train and pushed out to the station at
6th Av.

I looked behind
me in the search of his tousled black hair to find his green eyes starring
right back at me. He looked expectant, but it was obvious that he could not
move and leave his grandma unprotected on the crowded subway. WHAT SHOULD I DO?
– I asked myself nervously

One of my
friends pulled me of my hesitation and told me to run back and ask his name.
SERIOUSLY? COME ON.. WHAT ABOUT THE EMBARRASSMENT? But once I turned my head once again in his
direction, he was still looking at me. WHATEVER! #Yolo… I ran to the subway
door and asked him shouting what his name was. He looked happy, but when he
shouted back his name it was muted by the typical "Shhhhh" you hear
close to the time when the train is about to start moving. After that he asked
the same, but my response was also suppressed by the same sound that now marked
the closing of the doors.

PUM.

They
closed.

We kept looking into each other's eyes until the subway disappeared and
we couldn’t anymore.

… SOMEONE GIVE ME
AN OSCAR FOR THIS HOLLYWOOD-WORTHY DRAMA.

…

It was sad and I
was really embarrassed after realizing that the entire station had witness it.
A lady near me had even sighed. I MEAN!

Red as a tomato
I returned with my friends to continue our journey. It was sad in a way, but it
also gave us a good 20 minutes of laughter and a great anecdote.